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Season series: Nashville and Colorado meet for the first of four times this season, with the first two meetings coming in Denver. The Avalanche won two of its three games last season against the Predators, both at Pepsi Center.

Big story: Nashville was sluggish from puck drop in its season opener against St. Louis on Thursday, and it showed. The Blues scored three times before the game was 10 minutes old and went on to a 4-2 victory. The Avalanche is coming off a dominant 6-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday and is looking for a win before heading out next week on a three-game East Coast trip.

Team Scope:

Predators: Goaltender Pekka Rinne's night in St. Louis didn't last long. Coach Barry Trotz hooked him 9:45 into the game after the Blues scored three times in a span of six shots.

"It's not the way you want to go in," Rinne said. "It's three quick goals and I just got pulled. Obviously [I'm] not happy with that and not happy with my effort."

Though his team was never able to recover from the bad start, Trotz was upset when it was suggested that the Predators were "blitzed."

"They blitzed us? Did you watch the game? We were blitzing them," Trotz said. "Three goals on six shots, exactly. That really isn't blitzing us. We were all over them, and they come down and score. They weren't blitzing us, I know that. I know what blitzing feels like and that wasn't blitzing. That was pretty well even.

"They were able to score on all their chances."

Avalanche: With the exception of goaltender Semyon Varlamov losing his shutout in the final seconds Wednesday, Colorado's Opening Night against the Ducks was perfect. That included the NHL debut of Nathan MacKinnon, the first player taken in the 2013 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old assisted on both goals by Jamie McGinn and held his own when the Ducks tried to rough him up.

While MacKinnon played down his performance, coach Patrick Roy was delighted.

"Play-wise, I thought he was fantastic," Roy said after Thursday's practice. "The first goal (he assisted), he made a great play to bring it in front, and McGinn scored on that one. On the second one (he assisted), [PA] Parenteau did a super job going first in the corner, made a nice pass to him. There are not too many guys that can see a player from behind, and the play he made there -- and he is 18 years old, let's not forget that -- was fantastic."

Injury report: Nashville forward Victor Stalberg (shoulder) is on injured reserve...Filip Forsberg (lower body) is day-to-day but didn't play Thursday…Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog didn't practice Thursday because of a leg injury...Defenseman Ryan Wilson is out with a knee injury.